http://www.latimes.com/news/printedition/asection/la-na-toxic30sidemar30,1,7363409.storyFrom the Los Angeles Times
San Gabriel Valley a Hotbed of TCE Contamination
Los Angeles and Santa Clara counties are the most tainted from the toxic industrial solvent.
By Ralph Vartabedian
Times Staff Writer
March 30, 2006
Trichloroethylene contamination has hit almost every state, but none more widely than California. TCE has contaminated water supplies, indoor air near cleanup projects and the air in cities all around the state.
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The biggest areas of pollution are Los Angeles and Santa Clara counties.
More than 30 square miles of the San Gabriel Valley, about 18% of it, lie in one of four Superfund sites in which the main contaminants are TCE and its close chemical cousin perchloroethylene, or PCE, a dry-cleaning agent. Much of the contamination has been traced to defense contractors. Among the cities affected by the contamination are Azusa, West Covina, City of Industry, El Monte and Alhambra. The contaminated aquifer in the San Gabriel Valley supplies water for more than 1 million residents, though that water tapped by local agencies must meet the federal and state safety limit of 5 parts per billion, according to the Los Angeles Regional Water Quality Control Board.
A cleanup effort over the last 20 years has cost $120 million and will continue for decades, according to Kathleen Salyer, a Superfund manager at the EPA. The operation pumps and filters 37 million gallons of polluted water at Whittier Narrows every day, ensuring it meets the 5-parts-per-billion TCE standard. The San Fernando Valley is also over a large TCE plume that is grouped into three separate Superfund sites that have cost $150 million to clean up so far. The plume extends for four miles and contaminates water supplies for 800,000 residents.
Much of the pollution was traced to the former Lockheed Corp. aircraft facilities in Burbank. Major litigation during the 1980s and 1990s, in which residents claimed they were poisoned, was settled out of court or dismissed. The pollution has forced water agencies to abandon half of their wells in the area. Although TCE still affects city development projects, Burbank Vice Mayor Todd Campbell said the pollution no longer stirred up significant community activism.
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